Failure or Learning Opportunity?

My 13-year-old nephew said something this past weekend that really made me think (again) about the way we "do school."

He was playing the game "Pirate Poppers" on my Mac. I don't get into that game, but he loves it. Plus, he loves my Mac because he just has an HP.

At one point he said, "Yes! It took me 24 tries, but I finally passed that level!" I congratulated him, of course, and then he said, "But I don't look at it as failing 24 times. I look at it as learning 24 ways that won't work."

Okay, I thought that was a rather deep philosophical thought from a 13-year-old, and maybe I'm wrong about that, but it made me think about how school is for most people.

You take a test; you don't do well, maybe fail it. Done. That's your grade.

For the most part, real life is not like that. When I taught my nephew to drive my stick shift, he stalled out on the first try. Well, I didn't say, "Okay, you're done. You failed." Of course, he kept trying, and he's very good at it now. By the time he's old enough to get his learner's permit, he'll be rockin' the stick shift. (By the way, we only practice in driver's ed lots, so we're not breaking the law.)

I heard Daniel Pink speak at the Virginia Beach Convention Center 11 days ago, and he talked about how the creative thinkers are the ones who will be successful in the future, and how it is our responsibility to foster that creativity. I was amazed at some of the facts he told us about higher level learning institutions using creativity. You should read his book A Whole New Mind, if you haven't yet, to find out about some of those methods.


The students who are permitted to "fail" and then keep trying new approaches until they learn the best way to succeed are the adults who will be the hottest commodity on the job market. Actually, that's the way it is now.


So why do we test our kids to death and give them failing grades on the first try? Shouldn't we allow them to exercise their creativity to find solutions to a problem rather than expecting them to spit back facts and definitions at us, and then failing them when they can't?


Today's students are the people who will be making decisions about us when we're old(er). We should probably do our best to prepare them to think of all possible solutions so that they choose the right ones for us.


The more important thing is that our responsibility is to prepare them for their success. When will our education system as a whole reflect that philosophy?